A House of the French l ype with the Local Doorway 
DIGBY DOORWAYS AND DECORATIONS 
By Phebe Westcott Humphreys 
TN spite of the fact that the inhahitants of quaint 
old Dighy hoast of their direct descent from 
the Loyalists, traces of early French settlers are found 
in the rambling architecture of many of the oldest 
homes in the fishing com¬ 
munity. The tourist who 
enters “Evangeline’s 
Land ” by way of the Bay 
of Fundy, becomes ac¬ 
customed to the pecu¬ 
liarities of the French 
settlers (in constructing 
their homes in Acadia) 
before reaching Dighy. 
But those who make the 
ocean trip direct from 
New York to Yarmouth, 
and take the “Flying 
Bluenose” to that inter¬ 
esting bit of English soil 
known by the much-loved 
name of “Dighy,” will 
probably be filled with 
wonder at finding many 
of the oldest houses built 
in a style apparently far 
from sanitary—according 
to the notions of tourists 
from “The States”—with 
the dwelling- house, the 
woodshed, the pigsty, 
and the barn and stables 
erected in low, rambling 
style, and all joined under one roof. Erequently the 
barns are at some distance from the homestead, 
with a wagon house between, and a low grain-crib 
joining them; but invariably they will be found 
under one roof, in order 
that, in the cold of the 
Nova Scotia winters, 
every department of the 
farm life, from the hu¬ 
man inhabitants to the 
trusty oxen, and the 
smallest pig or chicken, 
may be visited and its 
wants supplied without 
leaving the shelter of the 
long protecting roof. 
After becoming accus¬ 
tomed to this peculiarity 
m home construction, 
which is traced directly 
from the early French, 
and which is confined 
here mainly to the inlets 
of the Dighy or Annapo¬ 
lis ILisin, known as “ jog- 
gin’s Inlet” and “The 
Racquet,” the next sur¬ 
prise awaiting the tourist 
who is interested in the 
architecture of this 
charming old “town of 
the cod and the hake, ” 
will be the beautiful old 
A pretentious and characteristic vestibule 
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